A few years ago printers, copiers and facsimiles are typically implemented so as to have respective separate casings. In recent years, however, an image formation apparatus (hereafter referred to as “compound machine”) having functions of all of these apparatuses in one casing is known.
In this compound machine, a display section, a print section, and an imaging function are included in one casing. In addition, three kinds of software respectively corresponding to a printer, a copier and a facsimile device are provided. The apparatus is made to operate as a printer, a copier and a facsimile device by software switchover.
By using such a compound machine, it becomes unnecessary to provide a printer, a copier and a facsimile device separately in a room. As a result, the total cost and space can be reduced.
However, if software programs (including dedicated operating systems) respectively corresponding to a printer, a copier and a facsimile device are provided separately in such a compound machine, a lot of time is required for developing respective software programs.
In other words, such a conventional compound machine is nothing but a machine having one consolidated c sing. In the same way as the conventional art, software for printer, software for copier, and software for facsimile must be developed separately.
Originally, software for printer, software for copier, and software for facsimile can share algorithm in various aspects because of such a nature that they handle the same kind of images. If software programs are produced separately, therefore, there occurs a problem that the memory capacity is increased accumulatively.
Recently, however, a general purpose OS such as UNIX is often adopted in such a compound machine in order to save repeated processing of the case where three kinds of dedicated operating systems are provided separately. If only an OS part is shared, however, the development efficiency of software cannot be so increased.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-79368, there is disclosed an electronic print system that hierarchizes a document service architecture by using an application layer including a server dialog and a distributed application, a function layer including a font manager and a network manager, and a control layer including an operating system. However, this electronic print system of the conventional art is nothing but a system in that a partial function such as fonts is shared. The development efficiency of each software is not improved.
Furthermore, a plurality of applications can be mounted on a personal computer connected to the compound machine, a printer or the like. However, this personal computer does not manage hardware resources relating to the compound machine. The present invention does not relate to a personal computer, but relates to an image formation apparatus itself, such as a compound machine, to which a personal computer is connected.